Streaming Window, Washington, D.C. 1972

Nancy Rexroth made this small photograph in Washington, D.C. using, I imagine, a very basic camera and natural light. It's all soft blurs, like a dream half-remembered or a place visited in childhood. I can imagine Rexroth setting up her camera, maybe having to wait for the right moment when the light through the window created these ghostly streams. What was she thinking about while waiting? How many shots did she take before she got this ethereal effect? The sepia tone makes it feel like it's from another time, adding to that sense of looking back into the past. The light almost seems to have a texture. It's thin, washy, like watercolor, yet it fills the space with so much feeling. Painters are always looking at photos, pinching ideas, or just getting generally inspired, and photographers look at painting too. It's all just one big conversation across time. What Rexroth has done here feels less about capturing a specific place and more about evoking a feeling. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, letting multiple interpretations emerge.